If you’ve been following our guide so far, you should now have a garden planted in good soil with your vegetables spaced to allow plenty of room once they’ve grown in. That was a fair bit of work, but you’re not done yet, at least not if you want to get anything when it’s time to start harvesting.

Now that your plants are in the ground, you’re going to have to take care of them. As always, there are a few different things you’re going to want to keep in mind.

If you’ve been following along on our series about starting your first garden, you have have already done quite a bit of the heavy lifting necessary for a successful garden. Unless, of course, you’re just reading the series to pass the time, maybe on your lunch break at work. Don’t worry, we won’t judge.

With our gardens ready to plant, it’s time for one of the more enjoyable parts of gardening: figuring out what you’re going to grow. Of course, just like anything else, you don’t want to just grab a bunch of random seeds and starters and cram them into the ground. Unless you want a big mess, of course.What To Consider When Selecting PlantsThere are a couple of major factors to keep in mind when you’re figuring out what kind of vegetables you want to plant: